Handwriting among ASD children and adults

[DaisyProudfoot]

I've often wondered looking at doctors' handwriting, lecturers handwriting and two of my son's handwriting whether handwriting among ASD people tends to be smaller, more spidery and less clear to read. Both my boys, one with AS, one with dyspraxia have terrible handwriting and their art is pretty basic too.

 

I'd appreciate your votes as it may give me ammunition at school!

 

Thanks,

Daisy

[Tez]

My son's is small and spidery and totally illegible even to him. However, he has also got a dx of dyspraxia.

[Tensing]

My son's is small and spidery and totally illegible even to him. However, he has also got a dx of dyspraxia.

 

My 13 Son year olds is like this, he'll ask me to read his homework, I'll attempt it, ask him and he'll respond with "I think it says......." How can he not know what he has written 10 minutes before.

[call me jaded]

My 11 year old son is unable to make a meaningful mark on paper at all. He's dyspraxic.

[Suze]

my sons handwriting is very poor and illegable.Tends to be big and he presses very hard on the paper, leaves no gaps between words.

[Bullet]

I have suspected Aspergers and have terrible handwriting and my drawings never progressed beyond the level of a young child's.

[LKS]

Both my AS children have very bad handwriting. My son's is large, unclear and doesn't sit on the line. He often sticks capital letters in the middle as well. Art and DT are big problems for him too. My AS daughter is only just starting to write, although she is 9, again large poorly formed letters.

[Lynden]

My autistic son doesn't write yet but my hubby who is most probably AS has horrendous handwriting - its mostly illegible to me !

 

Lynne

[Tally]

 

It's legible most of the time anyway.

My camera's not that great though

 

 

And my drawings are . . . immature

[UltraMum]

my sons handwriting is very poor and illegable.Tends to be big and he presses very hard on the paper, leaves no gaps between words.

 

That's J to a 'T' although, with a lot of work he can now write beautifully at about 2 mins/word but - in a normal classroom situation it's back to above - although the spaces are starting to appear ...

 

 

BTW - He was told by the teacher that he had to make his writing smaller - needed a magnifying glass to see it ...

Edited January 19, 2006 by MotherEve

[Bullet]

You know, it's so funny, but when I was at school one tiny simple thing would have made a hell of a difference. That thing? Writing with a biro? I had to write with an ink pen at school and because I was clumsy and pressed too hard and had bad handwriting I looked like a bad stereotype of St Trinian's. We're talking blotches and splotches all over the page. I had brains, but was so clumsy at the same time. It made me feel so selfconscious and upset.

Then, when I started sixth form the rules were lessened and I started to write wirth a biro and things got so much better. I could press as hard as I wanted and lean on the page. It didn't matter - and I could concentrate on my work.

[Will]

I have suspected Aspergers and have terrible handwriting and my drawings never progressed beyond the level of a young child's.

 

In other words, I'm exactly the same. I'm suspected, and teachers do not leave my handwriting alone, a handful are worried that examiners may refuse to mark my essays if I've had to write too fast and it's come out even worse. I can read it 95% of the time, and I'm convinced teachers could if they tried... And don't even talk to me about artisitic talent... my skills in these areas are often bettered by pre-schoolers - I can't draw anything or make anything near resemble what it's meant to - and yet again, I get the teachers etc. whining at me for not trying - but it makes no difference if I do, which makes it all the more frustrating when I do try...

[LittleRae]

DS has very large writing which is very angular (sometimes looks as if there are a couple of w's in each word!), spread out over the page, can be above or below the line and uses capital letters intermingled with small.

 

Also very messy, as he's usually erased everything a few times! He writes very slowly which causes much anguish when homework is to finish something begun at school... He's currently having typing lessons.

 

A

[Brook]

I have suspected Aspergers and have terrible handwriting and my drawings never progressed beyond the level of a young child's.

Bullet,

 

my son has always been very apprehensive of drawing, he is only seven but all he can draw is a very

basic smiley face, he would see the masterpieces that the other kids drew at school and look at them

in amazement.

 

I did not vote, as there wasn't an option for my sons writing, he writes with a mixture of VERY big letters

and VERY small letters all in the same word, he also cannot grasp writing on lines.

 

He also uses a mixture of capitals and lower case, he starts off really big letters and squeezes in really tiny

illegible letters when he is coming to the edge of the page, he also puts in extra curls on letters.

I also have to say 'finger space' after each word.

 

Brook

Edited January 21, 2006 by Brook

[Brook]

In other words, I'm exactly the same. I'm suspected, and teachers do not leave my handwriting alone, a handful are worried that examiners may refuse to mark my essays if I've had to write too fast and it's come out even worse. I can read it 95% of the time, and I'm convinced teachers could if they tried... And don't even talk to me about artisitic talent... my skills in these areas are often bettered by pre-schoolers - I can't draw anything or make anything near resemble what it's meant to - and yet again, I get the teachers etc. whining at me for not trying - but it makes no difference if I do, which makes it all the more frustrating when I do try...

This is my usual handwriting. It drives people up the wall- I cant see why!

 

Will, I had no probs reading that.

 

Brook

[KarenT]

I can't really check any of those choices. J's writing is huge but very messy, descenders sitting on the line, capitals in the middle of sentences, loads of rubbing out because he concentrates so poorly. However, he seems to put more into joined-up handwriting and that can be very neat at times, though still over large. And he prefers to write in lists rather than blocks of text.

 

Karen

x

[barefoot wend]

Will

 

I agree that your writing is okay.

 

Tally

 

Loved the cat picture.

Edited January 21, 2006 by barefoot wend

[nvapid]

i have one of each - but can't vote twice

[OPooh]

Sorry to be stereotypical here but my opinion is that most boys hand writting is that way anyway - and as it's mainly boys with asd then you probably would find a correlation - but it would be pretty meaningless (sorry jmo).

[Tally]

Will, I think your writing, whilst not 'beautiful,' is perfectly clear.

 

I like cats . . . even my cat who licks the toilet.

Edited January 21, 2006 by Tally

[Kathryn]

Will I think your writing has character!

 

I couldn't really tick any of these. My daughter used to have small very neat handwriting with elaborate ascending and descending loops. She wrote very slowly and pressed very hard - in fact she used to break every single pencil she used. Not surprisingly she never finished anything at school and at about 14 began to use a laptop as her hand hurt so much. Since she stopped going to school about 18 months ago she has barely written anything. When persuaded to write a couple of Christmas cards recently she got very upset and eventually wrote the minimum To _______ from _________ with great effort. She wrote the words in large capital letters. It's almost as though she has a phobia about writing now and I don't really know what to do about this. Her typing speeds are very fast and she is much mure comfortable with a keyboard, so I expect she will get by.

[Mother in Need]

My son's is very small, I often joke I need a microscope sometimes. I find his handwriting very difficult to read, and I am able to read most (doctors excluded). He too can not always read what he's written for his homework.

He writes very slow and finds he can only manage with a pencil. When he writes with a pen (byro) his writing becomes worse still and slower too. He cannot keep up at school when there is writing to be done, though this is made worse by his dyslexia ofcourse. It took him 1/2 hour the other day to copy the word 'encyclopedia' from the whiteboard; I felt so sorry for him.

[DaisyProudfoot]

Thanks folks, the poll looks very promising

 

Will, your handwriting is very similiar to both my boys' - interesting.

 

Daisy

[Strange girl]

I feel sorry for my son in that one of the most important aspects of school is the most loathed by him. my son can print quite legibly when he concentrates really hard, which involves sticking his tongue out ?- but he HATES doing it. He is overwhelmed by great amounts of writing, prefering one or two words expected or on a page at a time... often letters are both small and large and off the line and too close together, and too far apart & mixed CAps with loWer caSe.. and can we change the subject...

 

I, on the other hand Love writing and drawing, despite being dyspraxic .. my pincer grip is one of the few things I'm good at.. but I don't want my son to know I enjoy writing or he will hound me to do his writing even more than he does now! if they could replace all pencils with keyboards he would be better off.

[microsoft_admin]

im 18 and i cant read my writting

 

i have voted myself as cant yet writght simply because i cant read my writing and nither can any one else as my wrighting looks more like a doodle

[DaisyProudfoot]

Looking good here folks - small and spidery and can't yet write certainly showing a trend.

 

keep going if you can, the higher the number of pollsters the better my stats when I argue the old handwriting thing at school.

 

Thank you!

 

Daisy

[lil_me]

Can hardly read my sons writing, it is one of the main areas he gets frustrated with. We asked for OT support for this and other motor skills areas but were turned down flat